Alexander Hamilton Quotes

[V]igor of government is essential to the security of liberty.

As to religion a moderate stock will satisfy me. She must believe in god and hate a saint.

Industry is increased, commodities are multiplied, agriculture and manufacturers flourish: and herein consists the true wealth and prosperity of a state.

In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution.

The desire of reward is one of the strongest incentives of human conduct; ... the best security for the fidelity of mankind is to make their interest coincide with their duty.

...that standing army can never be formidable (threatening) to the liberties of the people, while there is a large body of citizens, little if at all inferior to them in the use of arms.

[Imeachable conduct is] misconduct by public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust.

The deliberative sense of the community should govern.

Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known and less fixed?

The great leading objects of the federal government, in which revenue is concerned, are to maintain domestic peace, and provide for the common defense.

The natural effect of low interest is to increase trade and industry; because undertakings of every kind can be prosecuted with greater advantage.

If there are such things as political axioms, the propriety of the judicial power of a government being co-extensive with its legislative, may be ranked among the number.

A powerful, victorious ally is yet another name for master.

If we incline too much to democracy, we shall soon shoot into a monarchy.

The true principle of government is this - make the system compleat in its structure; give a perfect proportion and balance to its parts; and the powers you give it will never affect your security.

It is a general principle of human nature, that a man will be interested in whatever he possesses, in proportion to the firmness or precariousness of the tenure by which he holds it.

Civil liberty is only natural liberty, modified and secured by the sanctions of civil society.

This [a state militia system] appears to me the only substitute that can be devised for a standing army, and the best possible security against it, if it should exist.

States, like individuals, who observe their engagements, are respected and trusted: while the reverse is the fate of those who pursue an opposite conduct.

The [president] has no particle of spiritual jurisdiction. . . .

Can any reasonable man be well disposed toward a government which makes war and carnage the only means of supporting itself?

The rights of neutrality will only be respected when they are defended by an adequate power. A nation, despicable by its weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral.

The standard of good behavior for the continuance in office of the judicial magistracy is certainly one of the most valuable of the modern improvements in the practice of government.

Its objects are CONTRACTS with foreign nations which have the force of law, but derive it from the obligations of good faith.

The obscurity is much oftener in the passions and prejudices of the reasoner than in the subject.

After an unequivocal experience of the inefficacy of the subsisting federal government, you are called upon to deliberate on a new Constitution for the United States of America.

Nothing is more natural to men in office, than to look with peculiar deference towards that authority to which they owe their official existence.

The practice of arbitrary imprisonments have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.

A nation has a right to manage its own concerns as it thinks fit.

It has been observed, [that for the federal government] to coerce the States is one of the maddest projects that was ever devised.

The Christian Constitutional Society, its object is first: The support of the Christian religion. Second: The support of the United States.

Jurors should acquit, even against the judge's instruction . . . if exercising their judgment with discretion and honesty they have a clear conviction the charge of the court is wrong.

Take mankind in general, they are vicious-their passions may be operated upon.

It is in vain to hope to guard against events too mighty for human foresight or precaution, and it would be idle to object to a government because it could not perform impossibilities.

[W]e must extend the authority of the Union to the persons of the citizens - the only proper objects of government.

To all general purposes we have uniformly been one people each individual citizen everywhere enjoying the same national rights, privileges, and protection.

Safety from external danger is the most powerful director of national conduct. To be more safe, [nations] at length become willing to run the risk of being less free.

To model our political system upon speculations of lasting tranquility, is to calculate on the weaker springs of the human character.

Government implies the power of making laws. It is essential to the idea of a law, that it be attended with a sanction; or, in other words, a penalty or punishment for disobedience.

How can you trust people who are poor and own no property? ... Inequality of property will exist as long as liberty exists.

[S]ound policy condemns the practice of accumulating debts.

Schemes to subvert the liberties of a great community require time to mature them for execution.

A treaty cannot be made which alters the Constitution of the country, or which infringes and express exceptions to the power of the Constitution.

There can be no time, no state of things, in which Credit is not essential to a Nation.

War, like most other things, is a science to be acquired and perfected by diligence, by perserverance, by time, and by practice.

CREDIT supposes specific and permanent funds for the punctual payment of interest, with a moral certainty of a final redemption of the principal.

Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives.

Necessity, especially in politics, often occasions false hopes, false reasonings, and a system of measures, correspondingly erroneous.

The multitude . . . have not a sufficient stock of reason and knowledge to guide them. . . . It is not safe to trust to the virtue of any people.

Those who have a tolerable knowledge of human nature will not stand in need of such lights.